Introducing a Change in the Rank Structure

[Caution]

Hello everyone,

 

Sorry this thread was delayed by a day - we meant to get this out yesterday after the meeting, but I was unfortunately way too swamped to get something typed up. For those of you who were at the meeting, this will serve as a general recap / reminder...for those who were not, this is hopefully going to explain our changes in the easiest possible fashion. We understand there is bound to be some confusion, so bear with us during this transition process.

 

This change stemmed from a conversation between Prez and myself, essentially discussing the problems with our vertical hierarchy structure. We are not losing a bunch of population, we're not losing a bunch of subscribers, and we're NOT anywhere near shutting down. The vertical hierarchy process is killing us from expanding. The reason why is because essentially we're forcing people to become Server Administrators, Community Advisors, and then Administrative Officers. Some people have no interest in doing CA meetings but they want to be an AO and do server work. They sit at CA for so long, put up with the bullshit, and eventually leave. The retention rate is not amazing. That being said, we're going to open up a couple of teams.

 

After us coming up with something to take to the rest of the BD's, we got them involved...then got the AO's involved...then the CA's, etc. We are, at this current moment, forcing people to be actively engaged in each aspect of the ladder in order to climb up - when in reality, some people still want to contribute to the community without dealing with meetings, or server management, or ban appeals, etc. So, what we decided to do was create a few different ranks, as well as shuffle the responsibilities a tad, and ensure that specific groups are focusing on a specific, smaller list of tasks...while at the same time allowing people to be a part of multiple ranks if wanted (will be explained further) - so they can be as actively involved in the community as they want!

 

We are introducing a Media Team, Events Team, and Marketing Team, along with managers for each team. We also will make changes to the other admin ranks. Initially, we planned on cutting out Community Advisors, however, we discussed it further and realized we didn't need to. Essentially the Community Advisor rank remains the same in terms of responsibilities, but it will be considered a secondary rank instead of a primary rank, which is what it is now. Powers in the servers will remain exactly the same, forum moderation will remain the same, just that the rank will be officially a secondary rank.

 

The initial step in the admin process is that people that apply for admin and get approved will start off as an Administrator. They will be given very limited powers only that aid them in enforcing rules and protocol on servers. They will absolutely have no access to fun commands like freeze, burn, slap, etc. This serves two purposes: to help aid in the reduction of the amount of admin complaints we get for people abusing commands like this when they first receive admin, and to be considered an incentive when they reach the next rank, seen below.

 

After 6 months of being an admin, Administrators will automatically be promoted to the rank of Senior Administrator. This rank comes with a few extra commands such as the fun commands. This will be the incentive for sticking around and not getting into trouble as an Administrator. Administrators may be promoted early for good behavior by the BD's if we deem necessary, as well as be held back if there are punishment issues.

 

For those of you Server Administrators we currently have, we will go through and filter you into one of these two ranks. More than likely, if you are sitting with around 4 months time in grade with no issues, we will probably stick you at Senior Administrator - those of you with less will probably be placed into Administrator. This will be case by case, however, and each individual SA will be reviewed.

 

The Events Team will consist of a team whose sole purpose is the creation of events. This includes things like holiday events, server events (to be worked on with managers of a particular server), the raffle, etc.

 

The Media Team is going to be responsible for any type of media related content, such as Youtube videos, banners, forum designs, forum awards, rank bars, etc.

 

The Marketing Team will be responsible for general marketing and promoting of the SG brand, managing advertising, finding sponsors, and researching/managing 3rd party sites/applications. Their goal is to get our name out there as much as possible in a positive light.

 

The Technical Team will be the same as it is now for the most part, but we will also open it up to Junior TA's, which will essentially be people with limited access who want to help out and learn, but we may not want them to have full access just yet.

 

The Game Divisions will be specific to server work. They will no longer be involved in most voting-based discussions like they would be right now. They will still be able to do Player Complaints if they wish to. A Division Manager will be responsible for keeping their Game Division on track and reporting back to the BDs (just like how every other team manager position will work). This change is not to punish the current team, and they are absolutely not doing bad at all, but we're trying to make the rank solely focused on server management. At the end of the day, it's about making everyone's job easier based on given responsibilities.

 

Our team will be part of the CS:GO Division to start and a CS:GO manager will likely be appointed in the near future. More development on this will be soon to follow (stand by!).

 

The eligibility of the CA rank is open from Senior Administrator and above. It's obviously implied that the BDs are involved with the discussions held at the CA level. The Events, Media, Technical, Server and Marketing team members are all eligible to be a Community Advisor. This will be displayed as a secondary rank, and the meetings will now be held for all Administrators and above - they will just be silenced as the CA's run the meeting with the Board and applicable Managers.

 

We have opened these teams up to the AO's first, then the CA's, and we are now opening up the Marketing, Media, Events, and Technical teams all to the public! There are applications that will be available for all of you to apply and possibly get more actively involved in the community in a different aspect than what you are perhaps doing now. There are already several people selected for these teams - which we will go into in another thread...this thread is mainly to lay out the description with the changes. We understand there are going to be a LOT of questions, so please bear with us as we go through them.

 

Please also understand that this is a huge change with a lot of moving parts. At the end of the day, we will constantly evaluate the system - meaning these changes are not solidified by any means, we will adjust slowly as we see fit, and there probably will be several adjustments as we go down the line. We hope that you guys like the new changes and can understand why we are going forward with them! These should all be rolled out within the next couple of days, and, as mentioned, will be constantly monitored and tweaked as the BD's see fit.

 

Thanks!

[Prez]

In the next few days you will see the following:

 

- A post with application links for each rank

- The first round of promotions

- A Q&A Thread for discussion on these changes DONE

- The Members tab changing to reflect the new structure DONE

- Some other forum changes to account for our new changes

- Changes in TS and Discord for ranks DONE

- Adjust the Staff Reviews Form

- Other misc. changes for website/servers as needed

 

 

We know that this is a very big change and we are 100% committed to working with you guys on ensuring it goes as well as possible!

 

 

>> DISCUSSION THREAD

[Black Rain]

As you all know, Prez mentioned yesterday that we would be creating applications for the new ranks and making them available to the public. If you're interested in applying for any of the following of the teams, you can find the links below with the job descriptions included:

 

 

Technical Team:

 

• Fix technical issues that arise day to day (servers/site)
  
• Research/manage mods, scripts, and plugins to improve our servers
  
• Develop solutions to improve our servers/mods performance
  
• Discover and fix exploits against our servers/site
  
• Assist in data backup operations for the community's data
  
• Assist AO's when problems arise or others are on vacation
  

 

>> APPLY FOR TECHNICAL TEAM HERE

 

 

 

 

Media Team:

 

• Manage forum and community website themes and layouts
  
• Manage all forum and community images (awards, rankbars, etc)
  
• Manage forum design sections (signature/avatar requests, etc)
  
• Work with Marketing team to manage branding and community logos/external advertising
  
• Work with Game Divisions to keep in-game branding and design (map textures for SG) up to date and relevant
  
• Work with Marketing team to manage social media accounts (Youtube, Twitch, etc)
  

 

>> APPLY FOR MEDIA TEAM HERE

 

 

 

 

Marketing Team:

 

• Manage all 3rd party sites/applications.
  
• Manage all advertising.
  
• Recommend upgrades, and general marketing aspects for the community.
  
• Research what the community like/not
  
• Upkeep the image of SG, and help expand.
  
• Work w/ the Design Team to manage branding and community design
  
• Work with Design team to manage social media accounts (Youtube, Twitch, etc)
  

 

>> APPLY FOR MARKETING TEAM HERE

 

 

 

 

Events team:

 

• Organize, plan, and run events
  
• Manage/Promote special events on our servers
  
• Manage and monitor gaming tournaments
  
• Make sure servers are ready for all special events
  
• Schedule events to fill servers in need via the steam community
  
• Manage and monitor gaming tournaments (ie. SGSL)
  
• Work with Game Divisions to create events that cater to community interests
  

 

>> APPLY FOR EVENTS TEAM HERE

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions regarding the change in the rank structure then please post them in our Q&A thread found below:

 

>> Q&A THREAD

[Black Rain]

We're in the process of adjusting the Server Administrator rank to form the Administrators and Senior Administrators groups. Don't panic! We're aware of some things that will be missing such as the rank bars and other small details. We'll be fixing them soon.

[Black Rain]

Little bump.

 

 

Seems that the Events Team applications were not made available for Regulars to apply. I just fixed the issue so apologies if you've been attempting to apply for a position in the team but had no access to do so. Link for the application form can be found in a post above if you wish to apply for the Events team.

[Prez]

The members page has been updated to reflect all of our new ranks. There is an issue with showing members who have multiple ranks (i.e. the CA page is empty right now) but it will be fixed soon.

[Black Rain]

The Staff Reviews form is updated. All TS icons have been updated as well and now are in proper order of primary to secondary ranks. More changes to come!

[Caution]

I am possibly looking to promote someone to be my secretary. It would included reminding me on tasks, meeting times, tagging me in things on here that require my attention, checking donations, etc. Not going to lie, it's mostly bitch work that consists of reminding me to do shit. If you're interested, send me a PM on the forums detailing why you're interested & you're typical available times you're around internet access, whether it's comp or just a phone.

[delirium]

I am possibly looking to promote someone to be my secretary. It would included reminding me on tasks, meeting times, tagging me in things on here that require my attention, checking donations, etc. Not going to lie, it's mostly bitch work that consists of reminding me to do shit. If you're interested, send me a PM on the forums detailing why you're interested & you're typical available times you're around internet access, whether it's comp or just a phone.

@Black Rain just not good enough anymore eh?

[Black Rain]

@Black Rain just not good enough anymore eh?

 

I do that already, even though it's sometimes, and he still ignores me. He just hates me